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Fighting fat: with TAF in Singapore

Submitted by admin on Tue, 05/20/2008 - 11:04

In 1992, the Singapore government noted that the obesity prevalence among schoolchildren was 14%. Singapore's population has a relatively high prevalence of diabetes, at 9.2%. Rates of obesity and overweight are high – 6% of the adult population has a body mass index (BMI) of more than 30 kg/m2, and around 25% have a BMI above 25 kg/m2. Recent years have also seen the increasing appearance of young onset Type 2 diabetes and impaired glucose
tolerance (IGT). Most of these affected children are obese. In an effort to reduce childhood obesity and, hopefully, the risk of adult obesity, the Trim and Fit (TAF) scheme was introduced. The scheme aims to improve physical fitness and reduce levels of overweight among schoolchildren. In 2002, this successful programme reduced the rate of obesity among schoolchildren to 9.8%.